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Review: Heavy Rain on PS4 is still a lot of fun

Heavy Rain came out on the PS3 a few years ago and popularised the decision-based genre. Now the excellent game is remastered on PS4 and it's still as great as ever.

Quantic Dream took a gamble in 2010 when releasing Heavy Rain because it was more of an interactive movie than an actual video game. It was basically a game full of quick time events, with a little investigation work on the side. The experiment paid off as Heavy Rain helped spawn similar games such as The Walking Dead, Until Dawn and more.

If you have never played Heavy Rain before, you should because it has one of the best stories I have ever seen in a video game. I would go as far as saying this game's story is better than a lot of Hollywood movies too. I'm not just talking about the blockbuster ones either as I feel this game's script is more original than movies that have won Academy Awards.

Without spoiling too much of the story, it's a murder mystery as gamers have to find out who is the Origami Killer. The Origami Killer kidnaps young boys and drains them in rain water. The main character, Ethan Mars, has to find his son before it's too late. The game also has three other characters for you to play as and their stories intertwine.

Norman Jayden is an FBI agent assigned to finding the Origami Killer and Scott Shelby is a private investigator working on the same case. The last playable character is Madison Paige who is an insomniac and she gets dragged into the story while meeting Ethan Mars at a motel.

The story is well written and there are a lot of twists and turns along the way. The game will keep players guessing who is the real identity of the Origami Killer and you'll never want to put the controller down because the story is exciting and engaging throughout.

The best part about the game is that your decisions determine how the story plays out. Your first playthrough will be different from your second playthrough and so on. I don't want to spoil too many details, but let's just say there are multiple endings and scenes for you to see and they're either good or bad.

The replayability factor is off the charts because you will have to play the game multiple times to see all the scenarios in the game. Even someone like myself that has played the PS3 version lots of times is still finding some new things while playing it on PS4. One playthrough lasts 10 to 12 hours and this increases once you play it more than once.

The only negative part about the actual game itself is that the controls are very outdated. The characters move stiffly when you are walking around and it also has a fixed camera. If you have never played the game before, you may struggle to play it for the first few hours or so.

If you have played Heavy Rain before, this PS4 version does not offer anything new apart from prettier graphics and the added The Taxidermist DLC. The only major improvement I noticed is that the PS4 version loads a lot quicker compared to the PS3 version. Other than that, the differences between the two versions are minimal at best.

Overall, Heavy Rain on PS4 does not offer much for people that have played/owned the game already on PS3. For new players though, this game is a must play as it has the best story I have ever seen in a video game and the replay value means you will be playing this game for many hours.